Meet the Team
Science doesn't know borders and scientists can come from all walks of life. Our team brings together passionate researchers from a variety of backgrounds and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in research
Gavin Knott
Gavin earned his Ph.D. from the University of Western Australia where he studied under Prof. Charlie Bond and Prof. Archa Fox. In 2016 he moved to the University of California Berkeley as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. Jennifer Doudna. Gavin is passionate about gene editing, RNA biology, antiphage defence systems, and training the next generation of innovative scientists at Monash University. When he’s not musing over data he’s enjoying time with his family or reading a good book.
Staff members
Rebecca Bamert
Rebecca brings her protein chemistry expertise to the role of Lab Manager in the Knott lab. She currently leads a project exploring the diversity of proteins encoded in Archaeal and Borg genomes. Understanding the interplay between these systems, and their environment, and unearthing potential novel biotech tools along the way.
Cyntia Taveneau
Cyntia is a Group Leader and structural biologist in the Knott Lab interested in host–pathogen biology. Inspired by how organisms compete with and defend themselves against one another, she creates small proteins from scratch to make CRISPR-based biotechnologies safer, more controllable, and more versatile. Her work combines AI-guided protein design, biochemistry, and cryo-electron microscopy. As a side quest, she collects unfinished artistic projects, often from behind a camera and always to a soundtrack of heavy metal, occasionally singing along or rewatching Twin Peaks.
Luis Valentin
Luis is a Group Leader with expertise in metagenomics, focusing on uncultured bacteria and archaea. Luis is a HFSP Fellow leveraging genomics and biochemistry with generative artificial intelligence to study archaea and mobile genetic elements that regulate nucleic acid machineries.
Marjan Hadian-Jazi
Marjan is a research fellow in the lab with a background in computer science and expertise in machine learning techniques. She leverages her programming skills to advance data analysis and artificial intelligence, contributing to the development of cutting-edge solutions in structural biology. Additionally, she is focused on creating novel methods for designing proteins using advanced AI methodologies.
Jovita D’Silva
Jovita is a Research Fellow who brings her love of bacteriophages into the lab every day. Her research looks at the molecular mechanisms bacteria use to fight off bacteriophage infection and propagation, particularly through RNA interference of both the host and the invading phage. Secretly, she hopes that one day she'll understand her bacteriophage friends well enough to finally join their circle. Outside of that, she's a big fan of CRISPR-Cas, her two cats, and finding other introverts, mostly so she has an excuse to let her extroverted side out.
Judy Bai
Judy is a Research Assistant in the Knott Lab. She believes that great science starts with good preparation, thoughtful planning, and a lab that is ready for discovery. She enjoys improving laboratory systems, keeping things running smoothly, and finding practical ways to make research easier and more enjoyable for everyone in the team. As a side quest, she also (tries to) practise mindfulness everyday in the hope of bringing a little more peace to herself and her surroundings.
Andrew Perry
Andrew is a research software specialist with a background in structural biology, biological data science and genomics. His focus is on scaling up emerging methods in AI protein design for research and clinical applications, while developing new tools and techniques to push the frontier of generative protein design. He combines protein science expertise with modern software development practice: tools, pipelines, and user interfaces, plus DevOps and high-performance computing.
Students
Frankie
Frankie is a new Ph.D. student from Tasmania. Frankie is keen to work with everyone, learn lots of new techniques, and even attend conferences. Frankie is passionate about photography, crochet, and is excited to be a part of everyone’s journey in the Knott Lab (particularly Nathan).
Giovanni Leandri
Giovanni is a Ph.D. student in the Knott Lab studying novel bacterial defence systems. He is using a combination of bioinformatics, microbiology, and structural biology to describe their function and reveal their potential as tools for biotechnology.
Loki Sangalli
Loki is a Ph.D. student in the Knott Lab building on his Honours and summer research project to develop precise RNA targeting systems. He is now using directed evolution to engineer these systems for specific in vivo applications.
Vincent Xue
Vincent is an Honours student in the Knott Lab, supervised by Dr. Cyntia Taveneau and A/Prof. Gavin Knott. He aims to utilise AI protein binder design to improve CRISPR-Cas powered gene editing tools. He has a passion for protein biochemistry and microbiology, and will always oblige a request to see photos of his cats!
Natasha Jablonský
Natasha is a joint Ph.D. student in the Knott and Banfield labs, working on understanding the diversity and evolution of large extra-chromosomal elements in funky, under-appreciated microbes. You can usually find her crying at her desk over a broken python script. She loves fangirling over all things evo-bio related, making art, and sampling all of the different lattes on campus.
Nathan Chai
Frankie says hi!
Helana Trantino
Helana is a Ph.D. student in the Knott Lab exploring the mechanistic diversity of CRISPR-Cas families. Her research combines structural biology and biochemistry to better understand how these molecular systems function and can be better adapted as biotechnological tools. When she is not thinking about protein structures, she is photosynthesising in the sun and diving into whatever new craft project she has this month.